Thanks, brother.
“Yeah. I did.”
Still do.
“Don’t tell Dane, but I thought what he did was pretty romantic.”
I snort. “You think losing your V-card in a gondola before a race is romantic?”
She scrunches up her nose. “No, but showing up to apologize, knowing that he will get his ass kicked for it? He said helovesyou, Alaina.”
“First of all, I’m mad at him for airing my business to everybody like that. And I don’t think it was real,” I murmur. “I think he just said it to take responsibility. He feels guilty. That’s what hedoes.He ruined his friendship with Dane because of guilt. He said helovedme because of guilt. He made it worse because that’s what guilt does to him.”
What I did to him.
Piper sighs. “Okay, so what are we going to do with that?”
“I don’t know, nothing probably. It’s already fucked enough.”
“What does Luc say to that? Since he’s your boyfriend now. Or, you know,oneof them.”
I smile a little. “He is my only boyfriend. And he’s surprisingly okay with it.”
Piper rolls her eyes. “I mean, ofcoursehe is. If he wants to have Masonandyou, how could he not be okay with you maybe wanting someone else? Would be pretty hypocritical of him.”
“True,” I say, biting my lip.Should I be worried about that?“But it’s never going to happen, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m over all this bullshit.” Piper eyes me, but I just add, “And Finn’s going to realize it’s not what he wants. He didn’t have time tothink, he was just reacting. Out of guilt. Like I said.”
Piper hums. “Okay, but if we forget all of that, right? The races. The media. The guilt. Just yourfeelings. In aperfect world, who would you be with?”
“In a perfect world?” I echo, glancing around the garden, at the lavender stretching into the distance, bees floating lazily, sunshine dripping golden down stone walls. I turn back to her, whispering, “In a perfect world, Finn didn’t hurt me, and I could have all three of them.”
She stops again. “All three, as in Delacroix, Payne, and Greer?”
I nod, my heart thudding. “Yeah.”
Fuck, first time I’ve admitted that out loud.
There’s a beat of silence, but then Piper crosses her arms. “Does Luc know you’re intohis boyfriendtoo?”
Oh, he so knows.
“Maybe, he suspects it.”
“Okay,” she says, tipping her head. “Then maybe that’s something to work on first, because the way Mason just looked at you this morning? That’s theeasiestproblem to solve.”
I snort. “I’ll remind you how easy emotional problems are to solve next time you and Dane get into it.”
“You so will.” She laughs, and we keep walking farther down the garden path, where we spot Jim and Élise sitting together on a stone bench, talking and laughing.
Piper leans close and whispers as we turn to walk back toward the house, “Love is in the air.”
I grin. “Pretty sure it’s just the French countryside. Lavender. Sunshine. Vibes.”
She snorts. “Sure.”
